“It was a solid start to the season in Australia," the Spaniard confirmed, "We knew we were not as quick as the Ferraris, so we had a good result in light of this. In the early part of the season it is important to keep scoring points and finishing on the podium as we push forward with our development programme. Everyone within Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes has been pushing really hard since the Australian Grand Prix to try to close the gap."
A previous race winner in Malaysia, Alonso knows what is required - so much so that he did not test with the team last week.
"You need a perfect car balance and good aerodynamics," he noted, " I have always gone well at Sepang, winning there in 2005 and finishing second there last year, so my memories from the track are great, and we will try hard to add to these this year! It is always a tough race physically, on the team as a whole and the cars, but we are prepared for that and, after what has seemed to be a long gap after Melbourne, we all really want to get back to racing.”
Team-mate Hamilton surpassed expectations for his
F1 debut, qualifying fourth and finishing third. However, it was his instinctive move to take second place at turn one that caught most people's eye.
"As I said at the time, it was a dream start for me in Australia, but I am realistic in that motorsport is unpredictable and things don’t always go so well," the Briton commented, "We have all been working to reduce the gap to
Ferrari and the four days of testing this week were really useful on two counts. We had a number of developments to the car that we ran and will now bring to the race, and I was able to learn the track prior to the event.
“From what I had seen of Sepang before arriving for the test, I thought it looked like a great circuit and I was not disappointed. Its layout means you can build up a great rhythm, with all the corners running into each other. It is also really wide, which I imagine will lead to exciting racing."
Renault – Giancarlo Fisichella (#3), Heikki Kovalainen (#4):
In contrast to recent seasons, Renault struggled to be a contender in the opening round, with Giancarlo Fisichella notching up some important points in fifth place, but rookie Heikki Kovalainen having to endure cries of 'rubbish' from team boss Flavio Briatore after what he himself termed a terrible debut.
